A group of motherboard enthusiasts working for GIGABYTE, sharing their insider knowledge and general ramblings of the motherboard business, the tech industry, latest technologies and trends, and other random odds and ends.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Here at GIGABYTE, we just announced Ultra Durable 4 Classic, a series of features that mean you’re getting the absolute maximum durability and longevity for your DIY PC build. With Ultra Durable 4 Classic there are four main technology areas that cover all manner of potential threats to your PC; Humidity Protection, Electrostatic Protection, Power Failure Protection, and High Temperature Protection.

I want to just hone in on Humidity Protection for a moment, and particularly the new Glass Fabric PCB technology that drives it. Ultra Durable 4 Classic motherboards are all manufactured using a new kind PCB process that actually helps protect the motherboard from moisture at the PCB level, with improvements to how the actual PCB structure is manufactured.

The problem with traditional PCB manufacturing is a process known as Conductive Anodic Filament. or CAF. This basically describes a situation where the copper conductive filament forms a laminate dielectric between the adjacent conductors. This can be a major source of electrical failure and is believed to be caused primarily by humidity or moisture, which causes a hydrolytic reaction with the copper within the motherboard overtime. Moisture is thought to enter the PCB via the holes in the board where IC components are attached.

GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 4 Classic motherboards use a new kind PCB manufacturing that allows for a finer glass fiber weave that makes it much more difficult for moisture to penetrate, even when holes are made to mount components. Take a look at the diagram below, you can see fiberglass substrates are made up of a woven fiberglass materials. On the left you see traditional PCB with larger gaps or spaces, while on the right you can see the improved glass fabric PCB manufactured using the new process.

In the lower section of the diagram above you can also how the PCB weave is made thinner and flatter in the example on the right. This also helps to make the PCB more resistant to CAF and electrical shorting. Check out the image below, which is an artistic rendition that show more clearly the advantages of the new Glass Fiber PCB. You can see how the finer weave facilitates a flatter, tighter result which again, prevents moisture penetration and eventual shorting.

GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 4 Classic, including this new glass fiber technology is currently being offered on a number of our Intel H61-based motherboards, and it’s something that will be extended to offer on more motherboards in the future. It’s something that we hope our customers will appreciate

Digitimes reports this week that GIGABYTE and Asustek are engaging in fierce competition over motherboard warranties in China. Despite the negativity that usually accompanies the words ‘fierce competition’, we feel that this move is a step in the right direction in that it encourages positive competition where industry leaders use the quality and reliability of their products to compete, rather than focusing on reducing the quality and reliability in order to simply undercut the competition. An example of this kind of negative competition can be found in the current notebook PC market as it spirals in a lethal race to the bottom – clearly, nobody wins in a race to the bottom because negative profits translate to unsustainable business. The result is that quality focused vendors pull out of the market or spin off their PC businesses in order to focus on more profitable projects.

Getting back to the 4 year warranty, every motherboard vendor knows that the main causes of RMA (after sales service issues) are BIOS problems (e.g. from power failure during booting up), capacitor and other power phase component failure, and blown fuses from external connectors such as USB and LAN ports. GIGABYTE has this covered with:

These features primarily give us the confidence to initiate a 4 year warranty in China, and we hope to expand this to other regions as our distribution partners come onboard with the idea.

We have also recently released our Ultra Durable 4 specification that includes Humidity Protection, Electrostatic Protection, Power Failure Protection and High Temperature Protection. Check out the press release and microsite for more details on the desktop PC motherboard market’s newest quality and reliability specifications.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Hot on the heels of scoring 5 out of 5 at NinjaLane.com, the GIGABYTE G1. Sniper 2 is continuing to impress, earning a Gold Award at HiTechLegion.com. Reviewer Ron Perillo even felt compelled to draw comparisons from Roman history, with Julius Caesar’s determination to cross the Rhine an aptly fitting analogy for our own search for motherboard gaming glory:

“During the Gallic War, Julius Caesar had his engineers build a bridge within 10 days over the Rhine river so 40,000 soldiers and their horses could cross and continue pursuit. They maximized the odds to their favor by eliminating all possible variables of loss and leaving very little to chance in order to guarantee victory. Momentum is important during war and delays between strikes gives more time for the enemy to regroup and counter-attack. In the world of e-sports and gaming, this kind of winning attitude is equally important to dominating battles.”

- Gigabyte G1.Sniper2 Z68 Motherboard Review – Ron Perillo

But historical comparisons aside, Ron also found time to cover the features and technologies of the G1.Sniper 2 in consummate depth with these two videos. The first is a good look at the board itself, the reprise focusing on the BIOS and overclocking.

This is one of the most thorough BIOS walkthroughs I have ever seen. Especially for those you who are perhaps not so familiar with BIOS, this is one hell of an introduction to all of the key features. Indeed, Ron leaves no stone left unturned.

Monday, August 29, 2011

GIGABYTE has just launched a free utility that allows users greater freedom regarding the disk mode configuration of SATA hard disks. As the name implies, Disk Mode Switch allows users to easily switch from IDE, RAID and AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) disk modes without having to modify or re-install your OS.

Currently within Windows 7 and Windows Vista, if you want to change the SATA controller disk mode from IDE to AHCI or RAID modes, you’ll find yourself in a bit of bother, as the OS will no longer boot and you’ll be faced with an error code; this is because Windows 7 and Vista usually install the AHCI driver during the OS installation procedure. If you switch disk modes later, that driver will not be present.

The GIGABYTE Disk Mode Switch utility is a simple Windows application that solves this issue, allowing you to switch between disk modes without jeopardizing your OS install. This is especially handy for users who want to switch disk modes to AHCI mode, in order to setup Intel’s Smart Response Technology.

Friday, August 26, 2011

When we launched the Z68XP-UD3-iSSD motherboard, a mid-range Z68 board bundled with an innovative mSATA SSD, it really was a huge first. Not just for us, but for the whole DIY PC industry. Never before had such a thing been offered by a motherboard manufacturer. In many ways it was a culmination of two things; an affordable SSD that could be added directly to the board in the form of Intel’s Larson Creek mSATA SSD, plus the emergence of Intel Smart Response Technology that could use disk caching to boost the performance of any Desktop PC with a small SSD installed. A perfect storm was brewing.

I remember on the launch day during Computex back in early June, that we were really excited about this board. We were absolutely the first in bringing to market something completely unique, something that we were convinced mainstream DIYers would appreciate. It’s brilliant to see that Dan Stoltz at Legit Reviews shares our enthusiasm. Here’s what Dan had to say:

“It's not very often that something throws me for a loop, at least not when it comes to motherboards any more. That's exactly what happened when I first heard about the GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3-iSSD! My first thoughts were that it's a great idea, followed by that boards has to cost a pretty penny! After today's testing, I will stand by my initial though of that's a great idea. What truly blew my mind was the price. As I said above, I thought the GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3-iSSD was going to cost a pretty penny, somewhere in the $350-$400. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the Z68XP-UD3-iSSD retails for only $239.99! Needless to say I was a bit shocked!”

“Once again I can't state enough how much the price of the GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3-iSSD shocked me. At only $239.99 you are getting a GIGABYTE Z68 motherboard, and an Intel Series 311 SSD already bundled together. Throw in the three year warranty from GIGABYTE for a little bit of piece of mind, and you have one great combination of products.”

“Legit Bottom Line: If you are looking for a motherboard and are planning on taking advantage of Intel Smart Response Technology, the GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3-iSSD ready to rock. Coming equipped with an Intel 20GB SLC SSD and plenty of performance across the board, the GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3-iSSD is a unique motherboard that should be on the top of your short list if it fits your needs!”

Thursday, August 25, 2011

A steady flow of reviews of our top tier Z68 gaming motherboard, the GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 2, is now starting to trickle through the webosphere. NinjaLane are one of the first out of the blocks with an in-depth review article from Dennis Garcia. We’re proud to see the product was very well received, accepting a maximum 5 out of 5 score on the site. Here’s a sample of what Dennis had to say:

“Gaming motherboards come in all shapes and sizes and in most cases aren't designed for a specific purpose since the categorization is generally a segmentation decision made by the mobo maker. In fact you can "game" on any motherboard but, if you want to get the most from your gaming system you'll likely need to pay extra for expensive add-ons such as high-end audio cards and fast network adaptors.

Onboard sound is handled by the custom designed sound card powered by the Creative CA20K2 Digital Audio Processor. As of this review the custom Creative DAP has given us the best audio specifications of any system we have tested. Ethernet connectivity is enhanced by the Bigfoot Networks Killer E2100 NPU.

Both of these onboard systems represent a hardware solution to offload network and audio processing that would otherwise consume CPU cycles. That additional power can then be put back into your game to smooth gameplay and enhance your overall experience.”

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Our upper mainstream Intel Z68 motherboard has been put through its paces by Joe Gulczinski over on Bjorn3D.com. Joe was impressed enough to award the Z68XP-UD5 the silver award:

“The performance of the GA-Z68XP-UD5 was never lacking in leveraging every bit power from the Sandy Bridge; as for the overclocking, for once the experience was refreshing and easy instead of tedious trial and error to get everything set perfect. For the price range of approximately $270, the discerning user would be hard pressed to not opt for this motherboard, contrasted to last generation's P67 chipset. Of course there are much cheaper Z68 motherboards; however, this board has great quality components. From the liquid cooled heatsink to the state-of-the-art VRM's, a lot of care and attention to details went into manufacturing.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Microsoft Corporate VP of Communications, Frank Shaw, recently blogged his disagreement with the term ‘post PC’, and thinks ‘it’s far more accurate to say that the 30-year-old PC isn’t even middle aged yet, and about to take up snowboarding.’ He points out that when it comes to technology, ‘new objects enhance and complement the things we’ve already got. They don’t replace them.’ We couldn’t agree more!

He goes on to say that “this is especially true when the new product is more specialized than the existing product and most importantly, the existing product isn’t standing still.” Desktop PC performance continues to make huge strides in GPU, CPU and storage capabilities, not to mention the desktop’s emerging role as the center of the personal/home cloud with it’s ever increasing capacity for storage and mobile device charging via USB ports. I’ve just completed a multi-city tour around Asia and Africa talking about this concept, and was surprised at how well this message was received – especially in developing regions where broadband Internet is hardly ubiquitous, so a personal cloud is more practical than traditional cloud computing! Our message is essentially that GIGABYTE motherboards equipped with On/Off Charge and 3x USB Power enable desktop PCs that better create, share and store content for consumption on tablets, phones and media centers. So the usage scenario is that you charge your mobile device (at the same/similar speeds as from a wall socket) while you sync your content and backup your Apps.

eReaders, Tablets, Smartphones, Set top boxes, and the myriad of other new devices out there, tend to be highly specialized in their application, and after initially using them for a while, people realize where they are useful, but also discover where their trusty desktop PC still rules. A quick personal example: I used to read The Economist online or in print, but now prefer reading it on my tablet because I have it with me almost all of the time, it’s more current (the online edition is available before the print edition), and I can even have it read to me while I shave in the mornings (via The Economist’s audio edition). On the other hand, if I’m comparing spreadsheets or creating PowerPoint presentations, nothing compares to my work desktop system that has two 22” monitors and a 3TB HDD for storing high-def videos and product images that I use for product seminars and online social media marketing. Naturally, I use my tablet (again) to show those presentations and promotional videos to our customers in the computer markets of Bangalore or Johannesburg when I travel.

So here’s the gist of it: as a leading desktop PC motherboard vendor, we’re not afraid of tablets and smart phones; in fact, we embrace them by innovating to accommodate better interaction between fixed and mobile computers! And as long as the desktop PC can recharge the battery of an ultra mobile device, the latter will continue to be a bigger threat to notebooks (that can’t charge via USB) than to our beloved desktop market!

We can be a pretty crazy bunch of nerds down-under but this one takes the cake! All you have to do is take a look at the list of parts purchased (so far eeek) for the build and it will all be pretty clear.

I’ll leave the list at the end of the blog to check out but when you see GIGABYTE X58A-UD9, 4x580s, i7 990X, waterblocks and fittings for anything even remotely considered a heat source you will get the drift! This build log is officially out of control and we love it!

Monday, August 22, 2011

Paul E. Marini Jr.,also known as BackDraft, has published a review of our Z68X-UD7-B3 motherboard which includes two videos. The first is an unboxing where Paul also goes through the main features of the board. The second video is centered almost entirely on our exclusive TouchBIOS technology.

Here’s the unboxing and overview:

…and below is the TouchBIOS video.

The bottom line is that Paul was clearly very impressed with our top-end Intel Z68 platform, awarding it the prestigious Gold Award!

The Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 comes with an easy to work with layout and its heatsinks don’t get in your way. Its performance was impressive and the added technologies further enhanced the user experience. Don’t let Virtue get in your way if the Vice is going to give you the performance you seek, this vice happens to be the Gigabyte Z68X-UD7.

HWBOT is running a GIGABYTE A75 OC Challenge. Benny Lodewijk from Indonesia just jumped into the lead with 9 days to go. He also put up a thread on one of the local forums (in Indonesian with lots of pics).

Friday, August 19, 2011

…the Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 is an economical motherboard with a solid mainstream feature set that'll get you in the game.

PC Stats has published their review of our Z68X-UD3H board which offers a more mainstream take on the Z68 platform, featuring a while plethora of video outputs, svelte black PCB good looks and a whole bunch of solid features that will guarantee an a excellent Intel Z68 PC experience.

To sum up, Gigabyte's GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 motherboard is a well featured mainstream choice for anyone who's outgrown the Intel P67 chipset and is currently looking to take full advantage of their Intel SandyBridge processor. If you're frustrated by the limits imposed by the P67 chipset or if you've ever wanted to set up dual-screen IGP-based graphics, use Intel QuickSync and so forth, the Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 is board that makes this easily available.

Buyers looking for more features could balance Gigabyte’s FireWire controller against Asus’ extra pair of USB 3.0 ports. The importance of USB 3.0 continues to grow, while FireWire fades into history. But Gigabyte’s A75M-UD2H also costs 10% less than the F1A75-M Pro. Superb overclocking capability puts a huge spotlight on Gigabyte’s value-oriented price,

With so many good choices available, the easiest way to pick a winner would be to apply our own proclivity for choosing the lowest-cost option able to enable the highest performance. Doing so allows us to recognize Gigabyte’s A75M-UD2H for its modest pricing and unsurpassed overclocking capability

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

AMD Bulldozer CPUs are looming on the horizon for a long awaited upgrade AMD fans are planning on and what better way to compliment your new chip purchase than a GIGABYTE 990FXA-UD7.

Gaming magazines can’t stop raving about this board, first PC PowerPlay a week ago and now Atomic Magazine gives the board a big thumbs up.

This motherboard sits above the Sabertooth 990FX on the food chain, as it were. Our results agree with this, with the 990FXA-UD7 edging ahead in most tests.

While this board performs above its competition, the real draws here are the extras such as the additional PCI-e slots, cutting edge design, and reasonable price. Reflecting back, it's actually quite amazing how such advanced componentry and design has become increasingly affordable and reliable over the years.

Scan Computers in the UK is currently hosting a Build a Killer Gaming PC giveaway, along with GIGABYTE, Intel, Bigfoot Networks, Corsair and Western Digital. From August 9-19, all you have to do is click HERE or click on the banner above to register and if you’re lucky, you might just win some pretty big prizes.

The first daily prize draw is today, for a Western Digital the Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s. Tomorrow is the GIGABYTE G1.Killer motherboard the G1.Guerrilla, and the grand prize on Friday is all the kit you need to build a complete Killer system.

Veteran video blogger Sin0822 was one of the very first to get his hands on our eagerly anticipated G1.Sniper 2 motherboards, and certainly one of the first to cover the our new Z68 gaming board on video. So get yourself nice and comfortable, sit back and enjoy an in-depth and detailed tour around the best Sandy Bridge gaming motherboard on the market today. Cheers Steve!

Writing for Vortez.net, UK reviewer David Mitchelson is one of the first to publish a review of our new flagship Z68 gaming motherboard, the GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 2. Claiming both Silver and Approved awards from Vortez.net the G1.Sniper 2 impressed David with some of the highest benchmark scores ever seen on an Intel Sandy Bridge setup. Take a look below at these two 3DMark 11 scores; the G1.Sniper 2 thoroughly kicks the opposition into touch.

From a visual aspect GIGABYTE have created an aesthetically pleasing gaming motherboard. It catches the eye, has the coveted black PCB and even LED lighting on the oversized heatsinks near the CPU socket. From the packaging right through to the board itself with magazine heatsink and visible bullet – GIGABYTE have captured the military feel with the G1 Sniper 2.

Performance-wise the G1 Sniper 2 is one of the best motherboards we have looked at so far. In all of the benchmarks it offered solid, consistent results and delivered great 3D performance – outmatching the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme, a board that is deemed as the ‘cream of the crop’ by Sandy Bridge enthusiasts.

As with all G1-Killer motherboards, the Sniper 2 has GIGABYTE’s well known Ultra Durable 3 componentry. The idea with the G1 Series is to give gamers an easy, hassle-free but quality-rich experience and we aren’t left in any doubt of that with GIGABYTE’s Touch BIOS – alter the BIOS within windows. Audio is also an area that GIGABYTE are keen to focus on, the Sniper 2 features audio support from Creative X-Fi and Bi-Polarized audio CAPs from high quality Nichicon MUSEES. These high quality CAPs give better sound resolution and reproduction… they also look very cool!

Bottom line is: GIGABYTE have delivered an astounding Intel Z68 motherboard in the G1 Sniper 2. It performs consistently good and if you like the dazzling looks then this is one to put on the wishlist!

You can also watch our intrepid reviewer David walk us through the G1. Sniper 2 in person with this video:

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Linus of LinusTechTips.com has gotten his tech-hungry paws on our latest and greatest gaming platform, the Sandy Bridge-based GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 2 motherboard. As unboxings go, this is a pretty highly charged affair as Linus gives us one hell of a pacy, thorough and detailed trip around pretty much every feature on the board.

It’s great to see that our motherboards are appreciated by one as knowledgeable as you Linus….Cheers!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

bob(nz) from TeamAU broke into top5 3DMARK11 scores benching 4way SLI on his own this weekend!

Overclocking with liquid nitrogen (LN2) is very challenging. Keeping a CPU or a GPU pot within a certain temperature range is what can make it very difficult particularly when you have very hot GPUs or CPUs.

Peter, bob(nz) from TeamAU thought he would really challenge himself this weekend and decided to take out his GIGABYTE X58A-UD9, Intel Core i7 990X and 4xGTX580 grapgics card and bench alone with 5 pots (1xCPU and 4xGPU) using LN2.

Peter’s efforts were rewarded as he managed to score 22,417 in 3DMARK11 (5th fastest in the world). I am sure we will see a lot more as he gets more confortable and grows a few extra limbs hahah.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Matt Wilson from PC PowerPlay Magazine just put an online preview of the upcoming magazine review of GIGABYTE 990FXA-UD7 motherboard. The reviewer was so impressed with the board he gave it 10/10. If I’m not mistaken that’s one of the first times I’ve seen any magazine in Australia give a perfect mark!

With Bulldozer literally around the corner, what can you do in order to prepare? Well, you may not actually have to do all the much (if you are already on the AMD platform), as Gigabyte and a few other vendors will be providing support on their old 870-890 chipsets.

For those of you who do need a motherboard upgrade, however, look no further than the 990FXA-UD7.

…….

…and with rumours of 5GHz+ CPUs being available Q1 2012 really makes you wonder if there is any reason to not jump over to the 990FX chipset sooner rather than later.

…….

VERDICT: The best 990FX board available and also very well priced

SCORE: 10

Keep an eye on issue# 196 coming up in the next month or so for this and other motherboard reviews!

Jim Baranski from Pure Overclock took a good hard look at our A75M-UD2H motherboard, and from what we can gather, he liked what he saw. As well as being impressed with AMD’s new Llano platform as a whole, Jim also found the A75M-UD2H to be the perfect foil for this new breed of graphics touting processor and excellent value for money.

As usual, Gigabyte comes out with a bang with the GA-A75M-UD2H. The aesthetics on both the box and the motherboard are typical of Gigabyte's mainstream motherboards and give a soft look. The features hold today's updated hardware with 6G sata and USB 3.0.

Additional treats like multiple PCI(E) slots are not part of the package as the platform as detailed is engineered and positioned for mainstream desktops and workstations. The quality upholds Gigabyte's reputation for manufacturing a quality product.

Easytune 6 is a very good overclocking and management software but most of all, is user-friendly. We really could not find any negative issues with the GA-A75M-UD2H.

Adding an additional graphics card is what separates the men from the boys here as a 6xxx series GPU can run in Crossfire with the on-die GPU, which is in our opinion, groundbreaking territory and the results show major gains in performance. Although mainstream users may not add an additional graphics card, the 6550D gives plenty of graphic performance as a standalone for light duty workloads; don't expect this to be a gaming rig.

However, on the more enthuasiast slant, overclocking the A8-3850 gave a very healthy boost on this Gigabyte A75 board. For a micro-ATX motherboard, it packs all the features mainstream users will seek.

The Pure Point: Retailing for aobut $100 US, the Gigabyte GA-A75M-UD2H is a strong performer at a great price.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Motherboards.org and Elric are back. After teasing us with a stack of high-end PC gaming hardware a few weeks ago, Elric returns with the rig all pieced together. And what a rig it is! Estimated at costing somewhere in the region of $4000 bucks, this monster is based around our renowned GIGABYTE G1.Sniper motherboard which packs a range of high-end features that are guaranteed to whet the extreme gaming appetite; a dedicated E2100 network chip from Bigfoot Networks, a Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Digital audio processor and support for 3-way SLI and Crossfire X graphics.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Atomic magazine has published their annual Atomican Choice Awards in their latest issue and we’re extremely pleased to say that GIGABYTE came out on top for both motherboards and VGA cards! The Atomican reader’s choice awards are decided according to the number of votes accrued by each vendor in their annual online survey.

According to Atomic magazine, “…in terms of preferred (motherboard) brand, it’s still a pretty clean win for old favourite GIGABYTE. They are a head and shoulders above rival Asus…” They also say that the drop off down to third place is one of the most dramatic in the entire survey.

The VGA card section was equally impressive with more than double the number of votes than the 2nd place holder.

We’d like to send a special word of thanks to all those who voted for us. Please rest assured that we’ll keep up the good work.

Links to the Atomic website announcing the wins will be provided shortly.

If you’ve treated yourself to a socket 1155 motherboard, using either the Intel Z68, P67, H67 or H61 chipset, you can now rest easy in the knowledge that you’ll be able to enjoy a healthy performance bump in the near future: PCI Express Gen. 3 discrete graphics card support will bring almost twice the potential data bandwidth of the current PCIe 2.0 standard, while support for processors made by Intel’s forthcoming 22nm manufacturing process, will potentially bring a significant boost in overall CPU performance and improved energy-efficiency.

Friday, August 5, 2011

The latest addition to our G1-Killer extreme gaming series has now arrived with the launch of the GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 2 motherboard, the first G1-Killer motherboard based on the Intel Z68 chipset, supporting 2nd generation Intel Core ‘Sandy Bridge’ processors.

The GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 2 follows in the footsteps of previous G1-Killer series boards, packing all the additional features that serious gamers are going to want from a motherboard. The G1.Sniper 2 packs a Soundblaster X-Fi Digital audio processor from Creative and dedicated networking in the form of a Killer E2100 chip from Bigfoot networks. But of course, you already knew that.

The G1.Sniper 2 takes it all to the next evolution cycle by including support for both PCI Express Gen.3 and support for forthcoming 22nm processors – making the G1.Sniper 2 about as future-proof as you’re gonna get at this moment in history. The board has two PCIe Gen.3 x16 slots (x16 and x8) which you can use in 2-way Crossfire X and SLI configurations. PCIe Gen.3 means you’ll be able to take advantage of forthcoming graphics cards that support the next level of PCI Express bandwidth.

And of course because this is an Intel Z68 board, we’ve included an onboard HDMI port so that you’ll be able use Virtu Switchable graphics technology; enjoy the full power of your discrete graphics card for serious gaming, then switch to the integrated graphics and video capabilities of your Sandy Bridge processor for less intensive tasks, powering down the discrete GPU, thus saving power. Lets not forget too that the integrated GPU also supports super fast video encoding with Intel’s Quick Sync technology. Want to encode some video? You’ll have it faster than ever before.

The Z68 chipset also offers Intel Smart Response technology so that any games that you install on your system will enjoy faster loading speeds with Intel’s unique disk caching intelligence with a relatively small and affordable SSD. Modern games take up a lot of space, so you may not be able to accommodate more than one or two an SSD boot drive, making Intel Smart Response an attractive way of speeding up your PC.

Oh and did I mention that’s sexy as hell? All in all, we’re really happy with to bring the G1.Sniper 2 to market and we’re confident that upper mainstream system builders will be tempted as well the extreme players. Check local retailers for pricing information in the coming days and weeks.